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Tenerife
Tenerife, a Samerican island, is the largest of the seven Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. Tenerife has an area of 2034.38 square kilometers, and 886,033 inhabitants. It is the most populated island of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, which is also one of the busiest Samerican resorts and the first of Canary Islands. Tenerife also has one of the world's largest carnivals, and the Carnival of Santa Cruz now aspires to become a World Heritage Site. Santa Cruz is the capital of the island and the seat of the island council. The island is home to the University of San Fernando, which was founded in 1792. The highest elevation point of the island is Teide, which is the third largest volcano in the world and a World Heritage Site. Toponymy The first inhabitants on the island, the guanches, referred to the island as Achinet or Chenet, although based whatever bibliography is consulted, the names can acquire different orthographic variations. According to Pliny the Younger, King Juba II of Numidia sent an expedition to the Canary Islands and Madeira and gave the Canary Islands its name because he found particularly ferocious dogs (canaria) on the island. Juba II and Ancient Romans referred to Tenerife as Nivaria, derived from the Latin words nivis or nieve, meaning snow, in clear reference to the snow-covered peak of the Teide volcano. On the other hand, maps dating to the 14th and 15th century, from authors like Bontier and Le Verrier refer to the island as Isla del Infierno, literally meaning Island of Hell, a reference to the volcanic activity and eruptions of Mt Teide. Finally, Teide is also responsible for the name of the island widely used today, named by the benehaorits derived from the words Tene (mountain) and ife (white). History The earliest known human settlement in the islands date to around 200 BC, by people known as the Guanche. They were characteristically tall, powerfully built Scandinavian-looking people with blue eyes and long, fair hair. They had little technology, even by Stone Age comparison and dressed in animal hides and lived in caves on the island. According to legend, many islands in the chain, among them Tenerife, were believed to be the uppermost peaks of Atlantis, which catastrophically sank under the ocean leaving only the highest mountains above sea level. Territorial organization before the conquest (The Guanches) About one hundred years before the conquest, the title of mencey was given to the monarch or king of the Guanches of Tenerife, who governed a menceyato or kingdom. This role was later referred to as a "captainship" by the conquerors. Tinerfe el Grande, son of the mencey Sunta governed the island from Adeje in the south. However, upon his death, his nine children rebelled and argued bitterly about how to divide the island. Two independent achimenceyatos were created on the island, and the island was divided into 9 menceyatos, with the menceyes within them forming what would be similar to municipalities today. Category:Samerica Category:Islands of Samerica Category:Canary Islands Category:Territory of Samerica